We need a new game
by Senrab Nomis
Summary: The boys are bored and Rodney has a virtual reality chair, what could possibly go wrong? Will update daily.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

**No beta so any mistakes i made are my own, so if you see some please tell me.**

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"Checkmate Sheppard"

Sheppard tears his gaze away from the female scientists sitting a few tables away. He quickly takes the look on his friends face and without looking at the board reaches out and knocks over his king before turning back to look around the mess hall. He knows that when his friend has smug look of victory on his face he's lost.

"Sheppard focus will you, it's no fun beating you if you're not going to concentrate on the game."

"How do you know I'm not just letting you win?"

Rodney's snort of disbelief is enough of an answer for him and he knew that Rodney was actually being seriously. The look of victory on his face had been pretty hollow.

Sheppard continued to take in the cheerful, laughing faces of scientists and marines around them enjoying their select friends company, and in the case of the civilian groups it went a little beyond friendship. Normally Rodney's face would be among them and John knew the reason why it wasn't, unfortunately that same reason was why the two had been playing chess the past few evenings.

"So Rodney, when does Keller get off of the late shift again?"

Rodney's face darkened slightly at the thought and John hated to think what his expression would be if the two didn't spend breakfast together, not mention nights together.

"She'll be back to her regular shift as of next week," he said, the irritation in his voice more than evident.

"Well the sooner the better for the rest of us."

"Amen to that." As cranky as the physicist could be he knew how irritable he could be when he got to spend less time with Jennifer, her calmness seemed to rubbing off on him.

"Ok Rodney I know you miss spending time with your girlfriend but if we are going to do this until the end of the week can we please find something else to do?" John allowed a small amount of pleading to enter his voice.

"Ok fine, what do you suggest?"

"Think you could rebuild those RC cars?"

"Yes I could but not by the end of the week. I mean you saw the state of them, there wasn't a single spark going through those wires"

John just nodded. The two had been racing their cars one evening when they had the unfortunate luck of being in the same corridor as Teyla on one of her 'walking helps Torren sleep' trips. The difference this time though was that she had come incredibly close to losing her balance and falling. If it had been just her then her response would have been much calmer, unfortunately the boys were looking at a mother's wrath. With an air of calm and a look of controlled fury in her eyes she crushed each car beneath her foot before turning and walking away. She didn't say anything the next DAY and the boys were more than happy to follow her example.

"However I may have something better." Rodney's confident look instantly reappearing as he stood up.

* * *

John raised an eyebrow before following suit. "Ok McKay, lead the way."

The two of them entered Rodney's main lab where Radek was tinkering with what suspiciously looked like a pair of virtual reality chairs.

"Ok Rodney spill it, are those really what I think they are?"

Rodney was all innocence. "They are a pair of the virtual reality chairs that the SGC have been working on."

"Rodney you did read _all _of the reports about those things didn't you," John enquired, pointing an accusing finger at on of the chairs. Word about the chairs had filtered back to the Atlantis expedition when they wanted to find out what they had missed in their first year. Usually the best way to do this was to find out what had been happening to SG-1 as they were usually right in the middle of anything interesting, important, or just plain explosive. Since it had been Teal'c who got stuck in the chair and eventually Daniel it hadn't taken long for the word to get out.

"Sheppard will you have a little faith in Zelenka's skills and more importantly mine." Zelenka had looked up but dropped his head back down again with a roll of his eyes when Rodney finished his sentence. Sheppard caught the look on the engineer's face, even with the Doc's influence some things would never change.

"Okay Rodney, talk me through it."

"Look it is quite simple, I have put in a lock out so that we receive no shocks when we lose and the game resets. We can alter the game parameters from the inside, well I say we you'd better leave that to me. Anyway if we want to change the scenario or the rules we just need to add whatever elements we choose. I'll have Radek here keeping an eye on things from the outside and setting up the scenarios for us. I have already set up several scenarios and info about whatever we might want to put in, so we're good to go."

"Ok, fine I'll do it but before we start I have just one question."

"Alright what is it?"

"Zelenka, what are you getting out of this. It must be something good if you're prepared to sit on the sidelines while we have the fun."

Radek had by now stopped his tinkering and had walked over the two of them while Rodney had been giving John his trust me speech. "Rodney will share the credit for the project when we present it to the SGC, and I get the first go when we demonstrate it."

"Okay fair enough, let's try this thing out."

**System booting up.**

**Initialising basic parameters.**

**Inserting players to preset location.**

**Preparing to initialise scenario protocols.**

A moment ago the pair had put on the virtual reality head gear now they opened their eyes to find themselves on the bridge of a Daedalus class battlecruiser. The plaque on the wall said the ship was the _Daedalus_ itself.

"Okay McKay I'll admit it, this is pretty impressive."

"Thank you," said Rodney with a hint of smugness creeping into his voice. "The idea is to test command abilities aboard Daedalus class ships, its better for someone to know what to expect when fighting the Wraith and any other known race out there rather than throwing them in the deep end. As a bonus it can also be used for recreation purposes and friendly competition."

"What you mean like who can kill the wraith the fastest, or whose strategy is the best."

"As it happens that is exactly the idea I had in mind for this little test."

He moved over to a control station and activated the monitor. The blank screen was replaced with a view of the lab back in the real world with Radek working at the control station for the VR chairs.

"Radek, activate scenario McKay 4."

"Bringing it online now Rodney."

**Scenario McKay 4 protocols initialising.**

**Awaiting scenario start signal.**

The Heads Up Display on the main viewport acknowledged the appearance of a second vessel some distance from them. It was another Daedalus class ship. The insignia proclaimed this one was the _Apollo_.

"Okay Radek transfer Sheppard to the _Apollo_."

Sheppard suddenly found himself on an identical bridge to the _Daedalus_ minus Rodney. In front of him a monitor similar to the one Rodney had been using activated and Rodney's image appeared.

"Congratulations Sheppard you are now the commander of the _Apollo_, while I have command of the _Daedalus_."

John was noticeably pleased with the idea of commanding his own ship, but he could smell a catch. "Ok, but what about the crew?"

"When we say go automated crew members will activate, we'll both have a full ships compliment but no F-302 pilots as of yet, that's a little programming for later."

"Nice and a little disappointing but I guess even you can't account for everything," Sheppard said, his teasing grin making an appearance.

Rodney rolled his eyes theatrically, "Did I mention this is because I need to get some good pilots in so I can record their reactions and set a standard. The Wraith by the way will have pilots as we already know what their reactions are."

"Ok point taken, so are we going to be duking it out against each other, see who the better captain is?"

"Nope, we'll be doing what you said earlier, whoever kills their Wraith first wins. By the way I programmed our individual targets to only go after one of us so they won't gang up on one of us."

"Sounds good, what do you say we get this show on the road?"

"You heard him Radek, are we good to go?"

The Czech's voice came over the intercom. "We're all set here Rodney"

Both men went and sat in their respective command chairs.

"Starting scenario now."

**Scenario start signal acknowledged.**

**Scenario starting.**

Aboard both ships crewmen materialised and attended their stations. Behind both battlecruisers a hive ship dropped out of hyperspace.

_Aboard the Apollo_

_Aboard the Daedalus_

"Sir, a hive ship has come out of hyperspace directly behind us. They are launching darts and powering weapons."

"Sir, a hive ship has come out of hyperspace directly behind us. They are launching darts and powering weapons."

"Raise shields and power Asgard beams, bring us around and take us past the hive ship. All railguns ready to fire at my order."

"Raise shields and power Asgard beams, bring us about and take us under the hive ship. All railguns fire at will at the darts."

The _Apollo_ and _Daedalus_ swung around. The _Daedalus_ dove under the hive ship as darts barrelled towards it, railguns firing wildly in all directions as darts exploded around it. The _Apollo_ meanwhile swerved around coming parallel with the hive ship as darts tore towards it. As the ship was about to pass the main dart bay Sheppard gave the order.

"All railgun batteries target the dart bay openings and fire at will."

The railguns opened fire and the rounds pummelled into the dart bays and the darts coming out of them. The ragged line of explosions started to push deeper and deeper into the dart bays interior. On the bridge of the _Deadalus_ consoles started to spark as energy blasts from the hive and the remaining darts impacted the shields.

"Sir, sensors are registering a large number of secondary explosions, power levels on the hive are dropping."

"Fire Asgard beams, redirect railgun fire to the surviving darts."

The plasma beams tore through the side of the hive, secondary explosions blossoming along the length of the hive in areas around where the beams hit.

The _Deadalus_ meanwhile had travelled the length of the hive and was coming around again all the while shooting down the darts that were chasing her down.

"Target the engine cores and fire plasma beams"

The plasma beams tore into the engine blocks causing massive damage as they caused a chain reaction of explosions along the ships main power conduits. Both hive ships were crippled, their power levels were plummeting and the number of active darts was drastically dropping. Both the battlecruisers meanwhile had taken acceptable damage with their shields holding if depleted.

"Hey Rodney heads up, you have a large number of darts approaching your position and your shields are failing."

Sheppard may have been exaggerating about Rodney's shields but not about the darts, they were regrouping into a swarm and were heading towards the _Daedalus_. Unfortunately the railgun fire wasn't having as big an impact with the darts in a single target arc. The darts were coming at him full throttle most likely hoping for a kamikaze run. The imagery reminded Rodney of the siege against the wraith, and it was that thought that sparked off an idea in his head.

"You haven't won yet Sheppard and I have a plan. Divert all reserve power to shields including weapons and engine power. Arm a nuke for one second detonation after beaming and beam it ahead of the swarm on my mark."

"Sir, power has been transferred and we are ready to beam the nuke."

"Beam it!"

The nuke materialised ahead of the swarm and, a split second before a dart hit, it exploded in a blinding blast of light. The entire swarm was covered in the radiation wave, as was the front _Daedalus_. When the light dissipated the darts were gone but the _Daedalus_ remained with its shields intact, barely.

"Hey Sheppard I'm still here and so are your darts, looks like I win."

Sheppard's expression was an interesting mix of shock, admiration and downright disbelief.

"I don't believe it." He glanced at the sensor screen. "Although the last of my darts are now gone so I guess it was a close contest."

"You know most people would be impressed by the little stunt I just pulled off."

"You mean Keller would be impressed don't you."

When Rodney's response was strangely unforthcoming Sheppard saw it as an opportunity to continue uninterrupted.

"Well I am sure if she is feeling particularly shallow at the moment she might just be impressed by that little manoeuvre."

A gentle voice floated over the com. "I don't know about shallow Colonel but I am definitely feeling impressed."

Sheppard darted over to the monitor and brought up the image of the lab. Standing there waving at the camera was none other than Doctor Jennifer Keller.

Sheppard knew that she could see him so tried to put on an air of innocence. "Hey Doc, didn't expect to see you here."

Her grin was sweet but slightly un-innocent. "Judging by the look on your face that's obvious Colonel, Rodney needed a medic during this little test so here I am."

Realisation dawned, he had been played. "I've been played. You used me McKay."

"You weren't complaining a few minutes ago, besides we needed the best person for the job and that's Jennifer."

"Thank you Rodney and by the way Colonel Rodney didn't need to ask me. I would have volunteered for the job."

John knew that even if Rodney hadn't asked her she probably would have volunteered for the job.

"Ok McKay, how about we try round two now."

"Round two it is. Radek why don't you surprise us, load one of the scenarios from the SGC."

"Loading up now Rodney."

**Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Scenario Loading Loading Loading Loading…**

"Rodney something strange is happening, the code appears to be changing."

Rodney's voice was low and deadly serious, "Radek raise all firewalls to maximum now, block the program from the rest of the system."

"Firewalls are all raised Rodney, the program is contained."

"Good work Radek."

Sheppard was a little surprised by the turn of events. "Rodney what just happened and why did you just get Radek to raise all the firewalls."

"For the first I don't actually know but if it means the programs corrupted its safer to quarantine it until we figure out what the problem is."

Radek's slightly nervous voice was not the most confidence inspiring thing to hear at this point, "Um Rodney it appears that certain parts of the programming code is being rewritten. Wait something's happenings, a program is loading."

**Loading Program.**

**Load Successful.**

**Program protocols enabled.**

**Generating environment and avatar. **

Rodney and John both appeared in the middle of the _Daedalus_' bridge. Rodney was about to turn to a console when John, who had noticed something interesting, stopped him.

"Rodney would a problem, quite possibly, include the sudden appearance of Todd!"

"I'd say it's a possibility."

Todd smiled evilly at them. "Gentlemen you have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into."

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**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

**Its true the chapters are getting shorter. Most future chapters will be between 1 to 2k in words, some above, none below. **

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_Earth-SGC_

Samantha Carter entered General Landry's office recently returned from another mission off world.

"Sir, you asked to see me"

"At ease Colonel, I thought you'd want to know that we recently hit an active trust safe house and got a list of their recent pay offs. We should be able to learn a lot about their current set up using this information."

"That sounds like good news sir, anything interesting among the information."

"Actually I have some people trying to find out just that now, and since I can see Walter coming down the corridor now we might have something."

Walter paused at the door, "Sir we just had a hit on one of the bank accounts. It belongs to one of the minor technicians working for the SGC's science teams; he had access to the Virtual Chair project."

Both officers were shocked from the revelation that they had been infiltrated. General Landry was the first to react barking out orders. "Have the technician arrested immediately and take him to a holding cell."

"SF's are already on their way sir. But sir that's not the only problem, the chairs the tech had access to were shipped out several weeks ago to _Atlantis_."

"So the chairs could have been sabotaged and _Atlantis_ could be the target."

It was Carter's turn to add something. "It's more than likely sir, I've been monitoring the project and all recent checks on the chairs we have here have come back clean.

"Have a message sent to _Apollo_ tell them to get _Daedalus_ to pass on a message the ships should have the range if they pass it on."

Walter dashed towards the stairs to the control room recognising the urgency of the situation.

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_Virtual Reality_

Rodney's face was a picture of disbelief. "I just don't buy it. You cannot be the real Todd."

The Wraiths grin remained in place. "How right you are Doctor McKay. I am not the real Todd. I am merely controlling an avatar based on his likeness."

John's patience was wearing thin. "Will you get to the point already, who the hell are you?" The image of this particular wraith standing before him was clearly not helping matters.

"I don't think he's a who, I think it's a what. In other words this thing is a computer virus."

Todd cut in at this point with a slightly maniacal gleam in his eye. "Oh not just any computer virus, the ultimate computer virus. I am the god of all viruses."

"Rodney, did he just say god?"

"He did indeed, face it he's a Goa'uld virus, created and programmed by. Guess the megalomania is contagious."

The Wraith's smile was definitely starting to wane after being subjected to Rodney's criticism. _Some things will never change_, thought John, _guess it's time to play the good cop_.

"Okay Rodney, take it easy on the poor computer virus. What say we give it a chance to tell us just what it's planning."

The Wraith sneered, "Why Colonel isn't it obvious. My goal is the destruction of _Atlantis_ and despite Doctor McKay's interference you two are going to help me do it."

"Rodney would never help you destroy _Atlantis_, and neither will I. There is nothing you can do."

"Sheppard's right, the virtual reality environment is completely isolated from Atlantis's main systems so you have no way to infect the city."

Not even this statement could dampen the Wraiths grin and seeing Todd smile this much was beginning to freak both of them out. "You are right, this environment and all the scenarios have been isolated. But you have also been isolated from the exit subroutines, thanks to my brilliance. The moment either of you try to leave it will form a connection to the main systems and I can use that link to transfer myself. You may escape but it's a small price to pay for my freedom."

Rodney could see the flaw in his plan and was quick to jump on it. "But we don't have to leave. It won't take Radek long to purge you out of the code. In a few hours we will be out of here and you will be nothing but a unorganized group of one's and zero's."

"Oh and what makes you think you have a few hours? You forget there is a scenario for you to deal with and it begins now. It's game time boys. Have fun."

With that the Wraith vanished, leaving two very puzzled people behind.

**Scenario starting.**

"Ok Rodney what are we going to do now?"

Rodney was typing away at a console. "Well, since I am apparently locked out of the system from here the only thing we can do is play this scenario out. At least it will keep us occupied and we might figure out what his plan is for getting loose."

"Okay then let's see what the situation is." John jumped into the helm control chair, while Rodney took the tactical position. "Well this isn't good, you better check out the radar screen because we have company."

Dead ahead of them were two Wraith hive ships, they were charging towards them and moving in to take flanking positions.

"It gets worse Sheppard. We have no nukes, the Asgard beams are offline, oh and the railguns are out of ammo. But we do have all our missile bays loaded and ready to fire, as soon as they are armed anyway."

"Any good news for me? Can we at least get out of here?"

"Well we can go forwards, just don't plan on setting any records. Other than that the manoeuvring thrusters are all out and so is the hyperdrive, so we can run but we won't get very far."

"Tell me we have shields." John was almost pleading at this point. Maybe there was a silver lining to be found somewhere.

"Raised and fully powered," said Rodney, with a small amount of pride entering his voice.

"Good because those hives are here."

The hives had by now reached weapons range and immediately started firing dozens of giant blue balls of energy. As each ball impacted the shields power conduits overloaded and consoles started to flicker. The shields held under the unyielding barrage but the overall strength continued to drop. Each hit drained the shields of more and more energy and under this much stress they wouldn't last long.

"Rodney, arm the missiles and fire at both. Let's see if we can knock out their weapons. I'm going to try and get us out of their field of fire."

"Missiles armed, launching now."

The missiles burst out of their bays and soared towards the wraith hive ships. Most were hit by the Wraith weapons fire and saved the _Daedalus_' shields from another hit, unfortunately there were many more on the way. The missiles that didn't get shot down impacted, five in all, hit the wraith hives head on. The missiles exploded in small fireballs as they impacted the hives forward hull, causing only minimal damage. It was doubtful that the Wraith even felt the impact from the hits. The _Daedalus_ meanwhile limped towards the two hives. Her course set her right between the two hives. Admittedly this limited the field of fire somewhat as the hives forward guns were out of arc as the _Daedalus_ moved closer and closer. But as the hives and battlecruiser charged towards each other the hives got into a position to broadside, and broadside they did. The _Deadalus_ shields were beginning to suffer under the onslaught, but as the _Daedalus_ charged forward some shots missed their target and hit the hive opposite.

"Sheppard I hope you're getting everything you can out of those engines, or we are going to be space dust soon. The shields are about to fail," Rodney yelled over the sounds of explosions.

Sheppard yelled back just as loud, "She's giving us everything she has, we're maxed out!"

"Shields are failing, we're taking heavy damage. The hulls collapsing! Blast doors are being breached! The power core is going critical!"

The shields collapsed and that meant bolt after bolt of energy was now impacting the hull. Each hit rocked the ship and caused heavy damage. The naquadah/trinium alloy that made up the hull plating was torn inwards under the blasts from each bolt. As the hull was breached emergency blast doors lowered and locked into place, but even they were eventually breached by the sustained Wraith weapons fire. As power conduits all over the ship were severed the excess energy fed back to the ships power core and it went critical. The ship exploded in a massive fireball that reached out and scorched the sides of both hive ships.

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**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

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_Back in reality_

"Rodney this is Radek, can you here me? Rodney, can you here me? I'm sorry Doctor Keller communications are down."

Jennifer pushed Radek aside and moved to the microphone. "Rodney. It's Jennifer speaking. Please answer me."

At this point she was almost frantic and flinched slightly as Radek placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Jennifer there is nothing we can do to contact them, the virus is blocking our attempts to communicate. We can see them but they cannot see or hear us, we can only monitor their condition while I try to purge the virus from here."

He stepped over to a workstation and brought up the virtual realities system interface. It would take a while but eventually he would be able to completely remove all traces of the virus.

He was just getting to work when his earwig went off. "Woolsey to Zelenka."

"Zelenka here, we have a bit of situation down here Mr Woolsey, I really can't talk." _A bit of a situation, that sure is an understatement._

"We just received a data burst from the SGC the virtual reality chairs have been sabotaged."

Radek sighed. "We know Mr Woolsey, and you had better get come to the lab."

The tone of fear at what he might find when he got there was evident in Woolsey's voice. "On my way now, Woolsey out."

* * *

When Richard Woolsey finally arrived at the lab he immediately started talking. "We do not know the exact nature of the sabotage but we believe the target to be _Atlantis_."

He stopped talking when he caught the distraught look on Jennifer's face. She quickly turned to face him when she heard him enter. "I think we have bigger problems than a potential threat to _Atlantis_ at the moment."

He quickly looked around the lab taking everything in. Radek was working frantically at the control console and hadn't even glanced up at his arrival. As he turned his eyes came to rest on the two virtual reality chairs, both of which were occupied by John and Rodney.

Woolsey was lost for words but as _Atlantis'_ commander he knew he needed to make an effort. "I see what you meant by a situation." He stepped over to the vitals monitoring station where Jennifer was. "What's our status?"

Radek didn't even look up as he spoke he just kept on typing. "The two of them are stuck in the virtual environment along with the virus, they can leave but won't because it seems the virus will be able to enter the rest of the system if they do so. At the moment they are enacting out a simulation and are waiting for me to dismantle this virus, which by the way is proofing difficult as the things core coding keeps on jumping to different parts of the system."

Clearly the stress of the situation was starting to get to him, but that's what the situation was, stressful. He had to completely remove the virus from the system which was proving difficult because the virus itself was a part of the system.

Woolsey tried to look on the bright side. "Well at least the virus is contained and not a threat to the city."

Jennifer threw him an angry glare, "No, it's only a danger to Colonel Sheppard and Rodney. As long as it exists they are trapped in there. I'm going to have to set up IV lines soon."

The physician was usually calm and not, in Woolsey's experience, prone to angry outbursts. The fact that she had referred to only him with his first name only solidified the rumours he had been hearing. Woolsey liked to know what was happening between the people under his command and was perfectly well aware of the relationship between her and Rodney. Taking this into account he chose his next words carefully.

He kept his voice calm and steady. "I understand that Doctor Keller, but it's good the virus is contained and no threat to the rest of us. This way we can devote all of our attention to getting them out of there without interference."

Jennifer's gaze noticeably softened. "I understand Mr Woolsey. I'll contact my team and have them bring up some supplies. We need to make sure they are hydrated and energised."

"Good idea Doctor Keller, get to it." He was well aware of the physicist's hypoglycaemia, as was anyone else on the base after a while. He glanced back at the two prone figures strapped to the chairs. He whispered, "Let's hope we won't need any of it."

Jennifer had just finished giving her instructions to her staff when both John and Rodney visibly shook from a massive jolt. Richard and Radek were stunned, the chairs were not supposed to be able to do something like that.

Woolsey reacted immediately hurrying to Radek's position, "Zelenka, what the hell just happened?"

Radek was frantically going through information on his computer, what he discovered shook him to his core. "It seems the ship they were on was destroyed and as a result of their deaths the system inflicted a sizeable electric shock to both of them."

"I thought it wasn't supposed to be able to do that."

"There are protocols in place to prevent it, but it seems the virus has altered them. However the system is physically incapable of delivering a lethal jolt to either of them."

During this exchange Jennifer had walked past both of them to the vitals display.

"Both of them are stable, for now. But I don't know how many of those jolts they can take, but my guess is not many."

The reality of the situation dawned on Woolsey.

"Zelenka, how long until you can eliminate the virus?"

"I'm not sure, but at least an hour, maybe two."

Woolsey's tone was grim and his voice almost a whisper, "They may not have that long."

* * *

A moment ago they were sitting on a broken and burning bridge before the _Daedalus_ had exploded around them. Now they found themselves sitting on a bridge that was untouched and undamaged. All that remained of the battle was their memories and puzzlingly the lingering pain of their deaths.

"You died, so you feel pain. It's only natural boys." Standing before them was a very smug looking avatar, still in the form of Todd.

Rodney's anger manifested itself easily. "What did you do you worthless string of zeros?"

John instincts to find the threat to both him and his friend kicked in and he knew that in this case the virus was the one responsible. It was all too evident by the virus' self satisfied grin as McKay accused it.

The Wraith meanwhile was seemingly unabashed by the physicist's harsh words. "Really _Doctor_ is that the best you can come up with? Isn't it obvious what happened? I am the system so can I not decide the rules?" The Wraith's sneer turned into a malicious grin. "And I say when you die, again and again, you will feel it." The last few words were spoken with a fury. It was clear the Goa'uld hatred for humanity was being channelled through their creation.

McKay's first instinct would be to take apart the binary code of the virus digit by digit, but with no access to the system that option was frustratingly off the table. His second instinct would be to insult the source of his frustration but since said object was a virus composed solely of one's and zero's that goal seemed pretty unobtainable.

That left him to settle on his third extinct, go along with what was happening until his genius level intellect could provide a solution to the problem.

Interestingly enough Johns own thoughts were along the same lines. He couldn't kill the image of the Wraith that had caused him so much trouble in the past because he didn't have a gun. It wouldn't have mattered to him that it wouldn't kill him anyway, it would at least make him feel better to have at least tried. So he would have to bide his time and try to come up with a plan, or, if that failed, pray that Rodney had come up with one.

Both men were fuming with anger and at the moment they had no place to direct that anger. Through a single look an unspoken agreement was formed that the two of them couldn't direct that at angle at its source, the virus. They both feared that if they were to provoke the virus it could be disastrous for both of them. Unfortunately the viruses general attitude wasn't helping them keep their temper.

"Now then gentlemen, I believe you are in the middle of a scenario right now so I'll leave you to it. Good thing this ship's shields are up."

With that the avatar vanished and the ship shook. Quickly turning back to the consoles in front of them they realised they were in the same situation as before. Once again there were two wraith hives bearing down on them and the only weapons they had were a few weak missiles. The situation looked hopeless.

"Sheppard there is a solution to this, no matter what the virus can do it cannot change that fact. There is some way out of this. We just need to find it. Think about what just happened, find a solution." Rodney's voice of confidence was John needed, sometimes the facts of a bleak situation are what gets you through it.

"In that case Rodney I have a plan." And with a grin on his face the ship lurched forward as John opened the engines to maximum.

The look on Rodney's face strongly suggested he thought Sheppard had lost it. _He's gone nuts, but at this point it's all we've got so what the hell._

"Okay Sheppard talk fast and we can do this. What's the plan?"

"Those missiles aren't armed right? Can you keep it that way when we fire them?"

"Yeah I think I can." Normally he would question further but with so little time he knew not to argue.

"Use the Asgard beams and flip them upside down." Sheppard caught the look on his friends face so he added, "Trust me McKay. Do it and get ready to fire them all on my mark."

Meanwhile the battlecruiser was bearing down on the two hives and those hives quickly coming up to meet it. The shields were stronger this time around as they had taken less damage due to the _Daedalus_' initial charge. The result being when the hives reached a position to broadside the shields still had a lot more hits to take before failing.

"Sheppard, the missiles are ready to launch."

Once the hives opened up their broadside weapons John saw his chance, a few shots had already missed the _Daedalus_ and hit the hive opposite. He suddenly killed the sublight engines meaning several more shots missed as the predictive targeting fire left the guns shooting at empty space, but the guns quickly changed targets to fire at the ship now sitting directly between the two hives. Now that their target had stopped moving the wraith opened up with everything they had. The blasts were pounding on the shields of the ship and they kept on coming.

"Wait for it, wait for it." Sheppard was staring at the hives movements waiting for the opportunity. He watched as the hives slowed to a stop and when their movements had stilled he yelled out, "Fire the missiles."

The hatches on the missile bays burst open revealing the upturned missile engines. The engines burst into life scorching the hatches. The missiles were driven the only way they could go, down. But they had no where to go and the force of the missiles thrust forced the _Daedalus_' nose down. As the nose began to drop John gunned the engines forcing the ship forwards and beneath the two hives. As the ship curved downwards the two hives found themselves shooting at empty space. Each shot that had been hurtling towards the battlecruiser was now tearing into the biological hull of another hive ship. Each left grievous wounds in the ship they hit and caused a chain reaction of damage throughout the ship. As power conduits were severed huge parts of the ship were darkened as systems either failed or simply shut down from a lack of power. Their guns quickly fell silent as both hives were left reeling in space broken and bleeding. The _Daedalus_ had made it out of the encounter intact if more damaged than when it first entered the fray while the two hives were left crippled in space.

* * *

**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

* * *

The Todd avatar reappeared before them with a slightly disgruntled look on his face but the arrogant grin quickly reasserted itself.

"So you survived round one. But never mind there is still plenty more to come and plenty of challenges for you to fail."

The virus clearly read the boys minds and cut in before they could speak a word.

"No time for talk, here comes your next challenge. Enjoy." Still wearing a malicious grin the avatar vanished.

**New scenario starting.**

"Rodney do you have a plan?"

"Yes, get through this alive."

"Sounds good, let's make it happen."

"I fully intend to." John held back a grin and instead showed a scowl, he knew his friend was working on a plan but for appearances sake they had to make it look like they were in a bind. The fact was they were in a bind but they didn't want the virus to think they had hope, to that end John knew Rodney would have downplayed Radek's ability to help them. "Now let's review the situation shall we."

To summarise they were once again up a well known creek. To elaborate they were being chased by two hive ships and they were pretty close. Clearly they were close enough to be within the maximum range for their main guns, this much was evident as the occasional successful pot shot could be felt impacting the shields of the _Daedalus_. It was a small mercy that they were proving hard to target at this distance. To make matters worse they were heading straight towards a sun. From a weaponry perspective their situation had improved slightly from last time. While they were once again out of nukes and railgun ammo, as well as missiles this time, they did have the ability to fire a single volley from the Asgard beams.

Sheppard turned to look at his friend, "So our situations bad." It was a question just a statement of fact. Rodney knew this and didn't even turn to look at him but kept on staring at the screen trying to see the way out of this situation.

The hives were fast approaching optimal targeting range and more and more shots were beginning to hit their target. Each hit caused the shield to flare the pale white typical of an Asgard shield and for now it was holding under the wraith weapons fire.

"Plan time Rodney, you got one or am I going to have to turn this boat around so that we can start shooting at those hives." The thought that they would be receiving a more than mild shock was preying rather heavily on their minds, unfortunately their situation demanded action and offered little time for planning.

"I really hate to say this but this is one of those situations were we learn through failure." The tone of confidence in his voice was notably lacking, but John didn't exactly blame him. Still with the current stakes he needed his agreement.

"Yes or no Rodney we're heading for that corona pretty quickly. I seem to recall Hermiod was very much against it." The memory of the now dead Asgard was not something either of them wanted to bring up. The cruel irony was that if that the Asgard hadn't passed on then they probably wouldn't have the weapons that they were now proposing to use.

Interestingly enough the comment, no matter how unwelcome, seemed to spark off a thought in Rodney's mind and given a little time it might turn into a plan. For now though he would have to 'go with the flow' and work out a few things, but there were ways to speed up the planning process.

Rodney turned to look at his friend. "Okay let's try it your way, flip us and take us back past the hives."

John caught the look in his friend's eye. It was that 'I may just have something' look that he had come to hope for whenever they were in a tough spot.

"Above or under and please tell me you have a plan."

"Either will be fine, and I have a plan that will hopefully lead to another plan if this first plan fails."

_Well_, thought John, _at least he's hopeful_.

"Above it is then." With that the nose of the _Daedalus_ swung upwards.

On the bridge they didn't feel a thing thanks to the inertial dampeners despite the incredible G forces. The Wraith hives were caught by surprise as the ship performed the very impressive manoeuvre and were unable to account for it in their targeting. Their shots soared towards the star, finally giving the shields of the _Daedalus_ some relief from the continuous bombardment. While the Wraith targeting systems were playing catch up with the currently changing position of the _Daedalus_ the battlecruiser had now levelled out, although this meant it had flipped one hundred and eighty degrees. Given the versatile nature of the artificial gravity onboard space ships it surprised the Tau'ri that they had yet to encounter ships in the galaxy that appeared to be flying 'upside down' as it were. The battlecruiser now charged towards the hives that had, until a moment ago, almost been on the battlecruisers tail. The ship had now quickly moved out of the hives targeting arc as it was soaring above and between the hives as they themselves continued to drive forwards, their pilots having yet failed to react to the change in their prey's course even if their targeting systems had attempted to react. Rodney had a plan and was grateful for the wraiths lack of response time. Tapping away at the keyboard he quickly sought out his targets and prepared to open fire with the Asgard beams. As the beams readied to steamroll towards their targets Rodney turned to his friend with a faint smile on his lips.

"Keep your eye on those hive ships Sheppard and hope that this works," and with that he fired.

John quickly brought up the imaging of the hive ships on his monitor and set up tracking so he wouldn't lose sight of them. He had brought up the image just in time to see the beams, two aimed at each hive, pound their way through the nearest engine blocks to the battlecruiser. Interestingly this meant only the engines on one side of the hive ships had been targeted and as such the sudden lack of push on one side was causing both hive ships to swerve to one side and both in different directions. In other words the hive ships were about to collide with each other, and collide together they did. The sides of the noses of both hives smashed together, the armoured hulls being crushed together, since they had been so close together and the speed of the hives so limited the relative impact damage had been minimal. But the hives were still moving forwards as the arrowhead formation they were now in locked them together, leaving them no direction but forwards. The hive ships continued on, but the attitude thrusters were now firing and the hives started to separate, one going up and the other down.

The Daedalus charged onwards, they had nothing left to fire at the hives but the hives themselves were out of the fight. Damage wise they had been relatively unharmed, but as any engineer will tell you a ship can be in trouble without shedding its bulkheads. The hives may not have bulkheads to begin with but what they had now was a lack of engines on one side of their ships. The two could chase after the Daedalus but it would be a futile gesture. In order to travel in anything even like a straight line they would have to travel at minimal speed while their attitude thrusters attempted to keep their course stable. By now the _Daedalus_ was already out of the hives targeting range and was increasing the distance between them with every passing second.

John turned to face his friend with an ear to ear grin on his face. "Nice shooting, those hives never knew what them. Guess we won't need that plan from a plan after all."

* * *

_Back in the real world._

Jennifer had finished inserting IV drips into both boys and was checking that the drips were functioning properly. She had just finished when she heard Woolsey give a quiet cheer. She turned back to him were he was monitoring their progress in game hoping, but not expecting, that Radek had found a way out.

"Please tell me Radek has found a way to get them out safely."

Woolsey turned to face her, looking slightly sheepish. He had not failed to notice the hint of desperation in her voice.

"No, I'm sorry. The two of them have managed to beat the scenario." He noticed the less than happy look on her face so quickly added. "It at least means they aren't in danger of a reset any time soon, and it means that they are adapting to their situation."

His words of confidence were crushed as John and Rodney's bodies arched as raw voltage coursed through them. Jennifer ran towards the monitoring equipment scanning the readouts hoping against hope that they were ok.

Her voice was shaky as she spoke, "They are ok but I really don't know how much more they can take. The individual shocks haven't stopped their hearts yet but if they keep on taking jolts then in all likelihood they will go into cardiac arrest. I wish I could tell you more but I don't know the level of the voltage and without being able to put them under the scanner I can't get a better idea of they're condition."

Her face spoke volumes to the two men and they could see that she was clearly suffering under the weight of the events. She was supposed to be a doctor, a healer. But in this situation all she could do was to give them mild painkillers and IV drips. If the worst came to the worst and their hearts did stop all she could do was give them a shot of adrenaline for fear that the voltage from a crash cart might damage the machine and their minds in the process.

Woolsey turned to face Zelanka. "What the hell just happened?"

The Czech sought desperately for an answer to the question they were all wondering, scrolling through miles of coding searching for an answer.

"I'm not sure, by the rules of the scenario they should have won, it doesn't make sense…oh no." His face fell. "The virus has altered the basic protocols. It seems that evading the hives was not enough."

Woolsey turned to look at the two motionless figures in the VR chairs his expression grim.

"It seems the situation has just become more desperate."

* * *

**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

**I was considering breaking this chapter up but since the reviews have been so good i thought against it.**

* * *

_Virtual World_

"Rodney you okay?"

Rodney opened his eyes, unfortunately this didn't make the nightmare go away and he found himself back on the bridge of the Daedalus, sitting at the tactical station.

"I am fine Sheppard, dare I ask what happened."

The deep voice of Todd answered his question before Sheppard could even think of a suitable reply. "You lost."

Rodney scowled at the avatar. "Let me guess you changed the rules."

The avatar smirked. "No you broke them. You forget, I wrote the rules for this game gentleman. I say what they are, and since you broke them you lost the game."

Sheppard was quick on the uptake, especially when it was his and his friend's life hanging in the balance.

"So what you're saying is that we have to kill those hives or it's game over."

The avatar laughed. "You only wish Sheppard. It's not game over until I say so. But you are right about the hives, if you fail to destroy them you lose. I would wish you luck but what would be the point."

The avatar once again vanished, leaving them alone on the bridge.

"Sheppard relax, it's all right."

"Why have you got a plan Rodney? Because if not we are really screwed, that virus has just cut our options in half." Sheppard was really beginning to lose his cool and unfortunately yelling at his friend was his only vent. Still that didn't mean he felt the anger he expressed. "Sorry buddy, guess this whole things starting to get to me."

Rodney however felt no anger towards Sheppard. He still partly blamed himself for this whole mess and wouldn't feel sorry until they got out of it. "Don't worry about it Sheppard, we just need to get through this."

"You're right buddy, we just need to do our part."

"And on that note you need to take us towards that sun."

The look on John's face was priceless. "Are you nuts?"

"A little, but I guess it comes with the territory after blowing up the better part of a solar system. Now towards the sun, if you would pilot."

John knew that if his friend thought there was time for joking then he had a plan.

"Welcome aboard the _Daedalus_ express heading to a star near you."

The ship charged away from the two hives that were already bearing down on her. The opening volleys from the hives went wide as the ship soared towards the sun.

"So Rodney, a plan that will lead to a plan?"

Rodney's smug grin had finally come back from vacation and made an appearance.

"Oh you really think I didn't think that virus wasn't capable of something like this."

John snorted. McKay seemed to have settled into his favourite gear, smug genius. "So what's the plan buddy?"

"Head towards the sun but don't lose those two hives."

"Not…losing the hives, okay whatever you say. Although I never thought I'd hear someone say don't lose the hive ships chasing us."

By now the hives were in weapons range and had opened fire. At this distance most of the shots were missing, but several caused the shield's to flare as they impacted. The _Daedalus_ was still heading straight towards the sun, but she wasn't pulling any manoeuvres that would indicate her intention was to escape the predators even now bearing down on her.

"Rodney…I hate to ask this but are we looking at some loopy plan that the boys who write Star Trek would reject?" He caught the look on friends face. "Hey, no offense buddy but charging head first towards a sun and making sure you don't lose the hive ships chasing you does not usually follow along the lines of a good plan."

Rodney hadn't looked up from his console, where he was busy typing away making calculations, since he had shot John that withering look when he questioned the sanity of his plan. He didn't even glance up now as he responded to his friends questioning words.

"Sheppard, in Star Trek they never had space vampires to deal with, they had the Borg so of course this plan wouldn't be of interest to them." _Although that does give me an idea, but I won't tell him that. _"Look this plan will work, just have faith."

"I will buddy." _I always do anyway so why stop now._

"We're nearing the corona, slow us down but keep us on course."

"Got it." The battlecruiser slowed down dramatically. The hives targeting systems were once again caught by surprise as their target momentarily dropped out of their crosshairs. But it wasn't long before the targeting systems readjusted and regained a lock on the battlecruiser.

The hives now quickly caught up with the battlecruiser as she slowed to a crawl. The battlecruiser was now a much easier target to hit. Each ball of energy fired from the hives weapons pounded into the shields of the _Daedalus_. The sparks were once again flying on the bridge of the _Daedalus_ with every hit on the shield.

The noise from the minor explosions was becoming so intense that both men were having to shout just to have a conversation.

"Sheppard, remember that manoeuvre we pulled last time?"

"Yes McKay and I remember, we ended up getting zapped. Please tell me there is more to it this time."

"Trust me, because we need to pull it round about." He paused. "Now! Do it!"

"Doing it."

Just like last time the ship flipped on to its back as the nose raised and the engines fired a full power. The hives were even more surprised than before, since they had almost been level with the battlecruiser this time they were lucky that they didn't end up broad siding each other. Once again the ship charged past the two hives as the APB's opened up. To those watching on the outside they would have been convinced they were watching an action replay as the two hives collided and were sent forward locked in a wedge formation.

This time though the hives were in for a shock as they kept moving forward towards the sun. It when they entered the corona itself that all hell broke loose. The Wraith count on board started to drop pretty quickly by the lethal levels of radiation, unfortunately for those that hung on that wasn't the only problem. The ships of most races were man made so to speak and as such were metallic constructs. The ships used by the Wraith however were not made, they were grown. Each ship was entirely organic and if one ever gained sentience could even be called alive. So as the ships were bombarded with radiation the hives themselves absorbed, and were affected by, a great deal of it. Sections of the hives shut down as the organic circuitry withered, failed and finally died altogether. The ships hulls were burning and their systems dying under the intense radiation of the star. The hives would take a while to die and it would be a slow and painful death, but one that they were spared from. Without the crews to operate them or even the engines to move them the ships continued to hurtle towards the sun until finally they impacted the star. The only thing to mark the impact was a small, short travelled solar flare erupting from the stars surface.

Without the Wraith fire the bridge had stopped exploding around them and the two men were able to talk normally, but there wasn't much to say.

"Damn Rodney…we have got to remember that one for when we get out of here."

* * *

"So Rodney, you've destroyed another pair of hives, although not really unfortunately, so what's next for you." In the euphoria of another victory John had switched into sports commentator mode.

Surprisingly though Rodney was cheerful enough to go along, John suspected he was planning something.

"Well that's not up to me, it all comes down to the organisers decision, and speak of the devil. Here's 'Todd'."

The avatar made an appearance in its usual spot. This lack of change of change was beginning to leave the boys wondering of the thing was actually capable of using its 'legs'.

"Well, well, it seems that mere hives just can't get the job done now can they."

John euphoria still hadn't worn off for some reason, of course what he didn't know was that by now Doctor Keller had given them both some vitamin booster shots to keep them going. She of all people knew about her mans hypoglycaemia and wasn't taking any chances, of course that didn't mean that John didn't need some too so he had received the same treatment. It was all she could do but it was at least bringing her some comfort to know that she was doing something while Radek was slowly isolating the virus coding so that he could delete it all in one foul swoop.

"Seems they can't, can they?"

"Oh don't worry Sheppard I have plenty more tricks to play with, and here comes one now."

The boys quickly lowered their heads to look at their screens.

"Sheppard there is nothing out their, yet. And our position hasn't changed. What are you planning you sneaky virus?"

"Temper, temper Doctor McKay. You're right nothing is here yet, but something is coming. Good luck." And with that the avatar vanished.

"Sheppard turn us around and get us back to that sun now."

John wasn't about to argue, Rodney had a plan and he had no idea what was out there. The truth was neither did Rodney but he only had one plan and no idea what was out there. The ship pulled the same manoeuvre it had just a little while ago, meaning it was now the right way up, so to speak.

"Okay Rodney we are on a course for the sun at maximum sublight. Anything on sensors yet?"

"Not a thing. Hopefully we can reach the sun before that happens. On the plus side the ships systems seem to have changed, the APB's are back online and ready to fire."

"Well at least we can shoot whatever comes at us. We're at the sun Rodney. I'm putting us into orbit." The ship swerved violently to one side to avoid the deadly corona field.

"Wait I'm picking something up. There's a hyperspace window forming behind us. It's…oh my god."

"Rodney what the hell is that thing."

"I'm diverting all available power to shields."

Out of the hyperspace window had plunged a massive black disc shaped vessel with eight long prongs extending from the ship. The ship had emerged just below the Daedalus and was easily a couple of kilometres across. From the middle of the ship rose a massive circular tower that once fully extended nearly doubled the height of the superstructure. From this central block six triangular prongs folded outwards revealing a gaping chasm in the centre of the ship that glowed as it charged with energy.

Rodney's voice was steadied by fear as he spoke.

"Sheppard that is the flagship of Anubis, and it is preparing to fire. Take evasive action now!"

Sheppard had heard only stories about the ship and what he had read from SGC reports. But once you've read how the weapon removed the people of Abydos off the face of their planet in one shot as well as erasing any signs of their existence you knew all you needed to. He didn't doubt the effectiveness of their weapons to take on the ship itself. Given enough shots the APB's should be able to take the thing out, but not if they got taken out first.

The superweapon fired, a massive beam of energy shooting out from the centre of the ship. The beam tore upwards towards the battlecruiser, unstoppable and unavoidable. The _Daedalus_ had been turning, away from the sun and hopefully removing itself as a target of the deadly weapon, but it was not be. The beam collided with the shields which collapsed under the intensity of the blast. The remaining energy tore on upwards through the underbelly of the ship, tearing a massive welt in the side of the ship. The ship was left floating in space, her side split open and her power failing.

* * *

The bridge of the battlecruiser was a mess, with debris littering the floor and smoke pouring out of ruptured conduits and burnt out consoles. Both men had been shaken by the impact but were still conscious and sitting upright in their chairs, though both were coughing from the smoke.

"Rodney, you alive?"

"I'm fine." Although he looked anything but. "What's the status of the engines?"

"Completely shot, anything powered up when that blast hit got fried. What about weapons?"

"Intact but I can only get enough power to charge one of the beam emitters. That hit took out most of the primary power conduits and most of our generators have shut down. Thank god for safeguards, if they hadn't kicked in the generators would have overloaded and we wouldn't be here."

"What's the status of the mothership?"

"It's recharging its main weapon to finish us off for good. They've even drawn some power away from the shields to speed up the recharge time."

"Can we take it out before that happens?"

"Not likely, but we can try something from Star Trek."

_Not like we have some other plan_, thought John.

"Okay buddy go for it."

"Firing APB."

In a desperate attempt at salvation a blue beam shot from the side of the ship, but not towards the enemy ship. Instead the beam tore towards the sun, aimed a patch of burning gas below the mothership.

On the bridge of the Daedalus Rodney was silently praying and John turned to his friend with a look of hope on his face.

"Please tell me that you do not just miss the target."

The superweapon on the mothership was almost fully charged, the target had been locked onto and the weapon was about to fire.

* * *

**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

* * *

From the star erupted a solar flare shooting upwards. The lance of burning power tore through space towards the two ships. The full force of the flare hit and engulfed the mothership, her weakened shields collapsing under the fury of the sun's power. The flare continued onwards, past the now collapsed shields and into the belly of the beast. The solar flare was small, with little energy to carry it forwards and to maintain its intensity, but what intensity it had was enough. The blast melted the underside of the ship and the superweapon exploded as the power source was hit and went critical. The ship was racked by a chain reaction of explosions that spread from the centre of the ship and erupted across her hull.

When the explosions had died down all that was left was a burning wreck in space that had once been a fully functioning behemoth. Across the entire ship there wasn't a single spark of life in any of its systems. Every power conduit across the entire ship had ruptured which was the source of the explosions that had rocked the ship. The ship was even now breaking up, entire sections being wrenched from the hull as the superstructure succumbed to the changing pressures caused by the vacuum of space sucking out the air through the breaches in the hull.

"Rodney, there is no way you should have been able to pull that off. So answer me this, how did that happen?"

Rodney sighed.

"Well, the game is kind of based on us in that it reacts the way you expect it to react. So if you expect something to work then it should work. I expected the plan to work so it seemed to work, it's not like there is any science available to it to prove me wrong is there."

"Rodney that is the wackiest plan I have ever heard."

"Yeah I know."

"Well done by the way."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome buddy."

* * *

"Okay boys time to get serious. Welcome to virtual hell."

Sheppard turned to see the virus's avatar once again standing in the middle of the bridge

"So what you're saying is that you have been failing in your programming to come up with something we would find difficult to beat."

No matter what the situation Sheppard would still try to antagonise the villain. Rodney was beginning to wonder if it came with the territory. It appeared to be a popular gimmick among the leaders of flagship teams. It certainly seemed to be having an affected, the avatar was practically snarling as it spoke next.

"No what I am saying is that compared to what you faced so far this is going to be a picnic, and its about to get worse for the good doctor. In more ways than one, unfortunately for you."

Rodney could hardly miss the implication or contain his anger.

"What are you planning?"

Sheppard chose that moment to cut in, in defence of his friend.

"And why Rodney? Why not try taking me on?"

"It's simple. Basic military strategy says take out the head and the body will wither and die. If Doctor McKay cannot come up with a plan then you are doomed. Thankfully his memories provide the perfect scenario to destroy him. Now then enjoy."

**New scenario beginning.**

The setting reset. They were still on the bridge but everything had been repaired to pristine condition, like the ship was brand new.

"Rodney focus, don't let that thing get to you. We just need to get through this okay."

Rodney sighed.

"Yeah I got it."

"Right. Now then what have we got?"

"The ships perfectly intact and there are no ships out there."

"What nothing, really?"

"Not a thing. In fact we appear to be floating in space nowhere near any star systems."

"Is it just me or does this situation scream, we're missing something? What about on the ship itself we got any crew aboard."

"I'm picking up one life sign roaming the corridors. There are a few dozen in the left hangar bay though."

"Isn't that hangar usually empty?"

"Yeah it is. Hang on I'll bring it up on the monitors."

The view of the hanger came up. The hanger itself was relatively empty. Except for the single Wraith transport craft, from which a number of Wraith drones were already disembarking.

"Rodney, please tell me that virus can't actually fill this ship with Wraith."

Rodney's face was grim.

"I really hate to say this but it is possible for this situation to occur in reality. Hell it has happened for crying out loud. Which means the damn thing can make us live through it."

"I don't suppose that we can just beam them all out into space."

"No that transport is sending out a jamming signal, we couldn't beam anything to or from any part of the ship."

"Okay then first stop is the armoury and the second stop is to find that lone crewmen, something's fishy about this whole situation."

With that the two of them got up and ran for the door, time was of the essence.

* * *

A little while later the two of them were roaming the hall ways. Fully kitted out in combat gear and armed with P-90's, pistols and even a few stun pistols, although they doubted they would be using them much, they were as ready as they could get.

John was on point keeping an eye out for hostiles. Rodney meanwhile had a life signs detector in his hands and was searching for the unknown crew member.

"Anything yet Rodney?"

"Nothing yet…wait, I'm getting something. Up ahead and take a left there's a life sign, no others nearby by, save for us. I think it's our mystery crew member."

The two of them crept along the corridor, weapons raised just in case whoever was round the corridor was a hostile. When they finally turned the corner though what they saw was definitely not a Wraith.

"Rodney?"

"Doc?"

"Jennifer?"

* * *

**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

**Second to last chapter folks, lets see what the reviewers reactions are to this.**

* * *

Standing before them was none other than Doctor Jennifer Keller. Rodney was quick to move to her side.

"Jennifer what are you doing here?"

Her expression clearly showed her confusion at being asked such a thing. "What do you mean what am I doing here? I'm supposed to be on this ship as are you and Colonel Sheppard."

Both boys exchanged glances and raised eyebrows. Sheppard decided to go on a hunch.

"So Doc what do you know about our current situation."

"You two were testing out some modifications to the Daedalus while the crew had shore leave in Atlantis. I was aboard in case either of you got injured by one of the changes to the systems. Last I heard everything was going to fine then you two are shouting over the comm about this Wraith transport that's dodging all your fire and heading our way."

"Well Doc the wraith are on board, they got past all our shots and made into the hanger. They are currently spreading through out the ship although I think most of them are likely to be heading our way. We're not to far from the hanger where we are. Rodney can I have a word?"

Rodney and John moved to one side.

"I know Sheppard, she's not the real Jennifer."

"That much is obvious, she's acting like this scenario is real. You don't think she is the virus do you."

"No I think she is just one of the holographic crewmembers. That virus gains nothing from impersonating Jennifer, it knows we don't have to trust her, besides why her? Why not choose someone like Ronon to impersonate, he stands a much better chance against us than her, she's not even armed." Of course he knew Jennifer could be pretty strong at times but he wasn't going to tell Sheppard that. "Anyway the virus doesn't seem that good an actor. I've never seen Todd sneer so much."

"Alright you've got a point, so what do we do with her?" He motioned towards the virtual Keller.

"I say we take her along with us, at least that way we can keep an eye on her. She might even be able to help us take out the wraith."

"Okay fine, we take her with us. But we are not giving her a weapon, and I still think this is a setup." He knew his friend was feeling some comfort from having the image of his girlfriend in front of him and he didn't want to take that away from him. That been said he wasn't about to let a potential hostile walk around unwatched, it was bad enough having the wraith crawling all over the ship.

"Jennifer follow Sheppard, he's on point. I'll cover our rear."

The virtual Keller nodded. Her confusion at the way the two of them were acting was evident on her face.

* * *

The three of them were slowly moving through the ship, heading closer and closer to the left hanger were the wraith shuttle was evident. So far the scanner had yet to detect any wraith life signs nearby. Sheppard was having a hard time believing that there were no Wraith nearby.

"Rodney, are you sure that thing is working properly?" The doubt in his voice told them all what his opinion was.

"Well it's picking the three of us up so I'm going to have to say yes. And before you ask there are no Wraith near us."

It was just then that half a dozen Wraith drones marched around the corner in front of them. The drones immediately raised their stun pistols and started firing at the three humans.

They were lucky, the moment they had seen the first drone round the corner the three humans had immediately dived for cover. Luckily cover had taken the form of a nearby corridor to their left, and they dove into it while multiple stun blasts soared over their heads.

As the Wraith advanced down the stretch of corridor, that suddenly seemed a lot shorter than it had a moment ago, firing all the way, Sheppard leaned around the corner and opened fire with his P90. The lead drone took the better part of Sheppard's opening shots to the head, the bone mask shattering in places under the withering hail of bullets. With so many bullets in his skull the drone dropped the stun pistol before collapsing on the floor.

The others however were unaffected by the loss of their brother and kept on advancing down the corridor, never stopping and never ceasing to fire. They were getting dangerously close for Johns liking, and he between ducking behind cover and waiting for the opportunity to fire he had only downed one extra wraith. Luckily Rodney then chose to add the bark of his own P90 to the musical ensemble. Between the two of them they were able to down two more Wraith. With only two drones standing their odds had improved dramatically and they were considering holding position to give the wraith a chance at a suicide charge. Unfortunately that required their luck to hold. It didn't.

Down the stretch of corridor, that just five minutes ago they themselves had walked along came another group of six drones. The boys were in a tight spot, they were dodging stun blasts from the front and back. They had drones a stone throw away from them but if they directed their attention to them a group three times the size would swoop down on them.

"Sheppard I think its time to pull back and hang a left." He quickly swung around to give to fire a burst at the larger group of wraith bearing down on them. He didn't kill any of them but that wasn't surprising given the Wraiths regeneration abilities, besides it slowed the groups advance and that was what mattered.

"Okay fine, your on point and take the Doc with you. I'll cover our retreat. Go now."

John swung back and forth fire burst after burst down both corridors. Rodney meanwhile pulled back and grabbed the arm of Jennifer, who had been crouching by the wall away from the firing and not making herself a target. He pulled her to her feet, urging her onwards, down the corridor and around the corner. John was now falling back to the next corner firing at the drones coming round both corners. Two more drones had fallen from Johns initial cover fire so the number of hostiles was, ironically, back to six.

His concentration was shattered though when he heard Jennifer's high pitched scream from behind him. He turned around to see the Jennifer slumped against a wall while a drone leaned over her, its feeding hand pressed against her chest draining away her very life force, while a ghost like Rodney watched the scene in horror.

* * *

A minute ago Rodney had rounded the corner with Jennifer at his heels, right smack into the midst of another half dozen drones. Two of them reached forth and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him forwards and behind them. Rodney hit the deck plating face first, his P90 clattering to the floor beside him.

"Rodney!" Jennifer rushed forward only to be cut off by another drone, who proceeded to knock her to the ground with a single blow to the head from the butt of his pistol.

"Jennifer!" Rodney rolled to one side sweeping up his gun as he went. Being a member of Atlantis's flagship team in the Pegasus galaxy no less had taught him a few survival tricks. With a short bark from his weapon he brought down a drone bearing down on him.

He turned to shoot the drone that had struck Jennifer and that was even now leaning over her when a stun blast struck his side causing his P90 to clatter to the floor. He expected to instantly fall into unconsciousness and was surprised when he stayed awake, he instantly reached for his gun only to have his surprisingly ghostly hands pass through it.

The drone pressed its feeding hand to her chest. Jennifer couldn't even scream as she felt the life being drained out of her, her voice had vanished as quickly as the years that were even being now being sucked out of her. Rodney charged forwards desperately swinging blows at the drone to no avail. His fists merely passed through the drone as they were not there.

All he could do was watch, his face a mask of horror and anguish as the drone stole the last of the life from his beloved. He didn't even make a sound all the while, not even as the dusty corpse that had once been Jennifer Keller collapsed in a heap on the ground.

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**Here be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I own nothing but i wish i did.**

**This is it folks, the last chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Rodney, snap out of it."

The boys were back in their chairs on the bridge of the Daedalus, just as they had been when they had started the last bout. This time though Rodney had failed to move so much as an inch while John leapt out his seat. The Lt Colonel was now shaking his friend trying to snap him out of the obvious shock he was.

They'd been at this for two minutes now and at this point the only thing that was stopping John from slapping him was the fact that he had just witnessed a terrible event. It didn't matter that it hadn't been the real Jennifer, the image itself was still enough to cause mental trauma and it seemed to be doing just that. It was time to try a new tactic.

"Rodney, that wasn't her okay. It was just her image. The real Jennifer is still out, she's still alive and she is waiting for you. Think about how you feel buddy, because if you don't make it out of here she is going to feel a hell of a lot worse."

It was a cruel thing to do and he knew it. But he also knew that if there was anything that would bring Rodney back it was the thought that he would be keeping her from suffering if he just sat there and did nothing.

It seemed to have the desired effect as Rodney visibly shook himself and seemed to regain some focus. But his voice was still unusually quiet as he spoke.

"Okay Sheppard I got it." And with that Rodney slowly rose from his seat, still shaken but alert.

"My, my how touching. But are you sure you want to get up Doctor McKay? Do you really want to walk down that corridor and watch her die painfully and be forced to just stand there and watch unable to lift a finger to stop it?"

Standing once again in the middle of the bridge was the viruses avatar, wearing an ear to ear sneer. At first John thought the words would emotionally shatter Rodney to pieces and reduce him to the same state he had been in just a minute ago. But when he turned to look on his friend, instead of the look of sorrow that he expected to see, he was surprised to see him livid with barely controlled fury. Fury that had no trouble reaching his voice.

"What did you do? What rule did you invent that meant I couldn't help her?"

Now your run of the mill real world villain would have stayed mum and allow the victim to remain bewildered in addition to their current suffering. In this case however the arrogance of the Goa'uld that seemed to have been built into the virus coding itself won over and it decided to gloat. Besides, it reasoned, it's much more fun to see the horror on their faces once they realize the terrors that await them.

"Oh it is quite simple Doctor McKay. This is, like everything else in hear based on your _real world_. A world which you will never see again by the way. Whenever one of you would normally be stunned they are out of action and unable to help with whatever crisis you seem to have gotten yourself into, I have merely taken it to the next level. Now whenever any character in this game gets stunned their interactions are locked out of the system until it resets."

Both of their faces were grim, they knew that this thing was making sure that Rodney would end up suffer the most from this round. The electric shocks were barely registering anymore. It was the psychological damage that was taking its toll.

In the face of this Rodney's reaction was to turn around and walk off the bridge. To the credit of his programming the avatar, and John, both showed surprise at this unexpected reaction.

"Well, that was unexpected." And with those final words the avatar vanished.

* * *

John was left playing catch up as he ran off the bridge and down the corridor after Rodney.

"Rodney, wait up."

Rodney didn't even turn around.

"I can't slow down now. I have to find Jennifer."

"Rodney we need a plan. You can't just charge off on your own."

"I'm working on a plan. The first stop is the armoury, then I am going to find Jennifer"

* * *

After a record breaking pit stop in the armoury the two of them were once again roaming the halls looking for Jennifer.

"Rodney you found her yet?"

"Yes she is around the next corner."

"Wonderful, so what's the plan?"

"I'm still working on it."

"Work harder."

"I intend to, but first we need Jennifer."

They rounded the corner and Jennifer turned to face them.

"Rodney, thank goodness."

Sheppard turned to Rodney.

"Okay we've found Jennifer, what's the first step."

"This." He pulled out a stunner and shot Jennifer.

Her face was a mask of surprise. Even more so when she realised that she wasn't unconscious despite having just taken a stun blast to the head, instead her entire body just turned ghostly. While she was still struggling to accept what had just happened John rounded on Rodney.

"Rodney what the hell do you think you're doing, we're supposed to be protecting her."

Rodney's response was to hold a finger as he said, "Wait for it."

A second later their world went white and when their vision cleared they were back on the bridge. The jolt from the reset hadn't even registered, at least not mentally, the shock over what just happened taken priority.

"Huh, there's a delay." He was speaking almost casually.

"Rodney, what the hell was that?"

"Yes what was that Doctor McKay?" The avatar had made his traditional appearance.

Rodney was wearing a very familiar smug look on his face.

"I figured if I stun her then I won't have to see her suffer."

"So what now Doctor, you just give up." It was almost possible to detect a note of hope in those words.

"No I just stun her if it looks like she'll be fed on. In the meantime I am going to figure out how to beat you."

The virus was clearly irritated at having its master plot treated like a mere hindrance.

The avatar grinned with malice as it spoke. "We shall see Doctor, we shall see."

"Yes we shall." And once again Rodney strode off the bridge leaving John to play catch up.

* * *

"Rodney, you better have a better plan than this one." By the time John had reached the armoury Rodney had been and gone. The guy was spending less time in the armoury in virtual reality than he did before missions.

Rodney was indifferent to Sheppard's disapproval of his master plan. "I only have this one Sheppard and I need your help with it."

He grabbed Rodney by the arm grinding them both to a halt. "Rodney, tell me you haven't given up."

Rodney turned to face him, his expression deadly serious. "I haven't given up."

"Good." He looked around. "Well this corridor looks familiar, Jennifer's round the corner I'm guessing."

"Yep."

"Okay then lets do this." He drew his stunner out and Rodney did the same.

They ran forward, about to turn the corner, when they screeched to a halt to avoid running into the Todd avatar.

"Greetings gentlemen."

Sheppard had, up to this point, been containing his anger. Now some of it leaked out.

"What the hell do you want?"

The avatar merely smiled. "Rebalancing the field of play."

With that the avatar dispersed into mist before reasserting itself into a ball of smoke. The ball was the size of a pumpkin and sported the Halloween pumpkin features that were being lit up by an inner red light.

The smoke creature flew around the corner with the boys chasing after it. It crashed into the back of the waiting Jennifer seemingly going into her. The impact was enough to shake her and she almost collapsed before reasserting her balance. She turned around and they were shocked to see a sneer on her face.

"Time for your dose of suffering. Catch me if you can." And with that she turned and ran.

Rodney was quick to react, "After her."

* * *

They were running flat out through the ship trying to keep up with a seemingly possessed Jennifer.

"Rodney what is going on?"

"The virus has used her as its new avatar. It'll be going to the nearest drone it can find, we have to stop her. You get a shot you take it."

"Rodney, are you sure about this?"

Rodney's face was set with determination, "It's the only way."

* * *

The two of them ran round a corner following her when they saw what they had been dreading. Jennifer was standing in front a drone and it was about to press its feeding hand to her chest.

The two of them didn't even hesitate. They raised their stunners and fired. Jennifer took two stun blasts to the head. Surprisingly she collapsed to her knees as her body turned ghostly. Jennifer's voice was fluctuating as she spoke, changing between human, Wraith and the deep tones of the Goa'uld.

"What is this? What's happening to me?"

Rodney strode forward, ignoring the drone that had frozen before them.

"Anyone who gets stunned cannot interact with the system until the scenario resets. That means you're out of commission."

"But only until the game resets. Why? Why hasn't the game reset?"

"Because of the delay. If I hadn't shot Jennifer I never would have found out about it, it was necessary. You are a better part of the system and those pieces are now none functional." The ship shook violently.

Her voice sounded pained. "But it's not that simple."

"You're right it's not that simple, it's created a paradox in the system. The entire program is degrading. But that doesn't matter because with you frozen we are free to leave without consequence."

Sheppard chose that moment to cut in. "Rodney time to go."

Rodney merely nodded and turned to leave. When they rounded the corridor Sheppard asked the question. "Where to?"

"Airlock, we use it we get out of her."

They didn't say a word. They just ran as the ship fell apart around them. When they finally entered the airlock they looked back at the ship with finality before they disappeared.

* * *

Rodney opened his eyes. He looked down at himself and saw that he was strapped into the VR chair. In front of him, smiling, with tears in her eyes was Jennifer, the real Jennifer. Her voice sounded angelic when she spoke.

"Welcome back."

He turned his head and saw that John was strapped into a similar chair. His friend smiled at him.

"Good plan buddy."

Rodney smiled back. "Thanks for trusting me."

John leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes, ready to finally rest after the ordeal. Rodney turned back to Jennifer and knew that he was safe. He closed his eyes as he felt strong hands unstrap him from the chair and rest him on a medical gurney. As his back hit the soft surface his eyes briefly fluttered open and he saw the medical staff was doing the same to John while Jennifer gave instructions. He smiled. They had made it back. He had made it back to her.

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**Here not be cliffhangers. Please Review.**


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